Do you take on the scammers?

[In The Ten Ring]

I just now kept a scammer busy for about 2 minutes. Automated call on "lowering credit card interest rate." I stayed on the line this time and got a foreign-sounding guy although his accent was not as heavy as I expected.

I do a decent Chinese voice imitation. I told him I didn't have credit cards, I only carried cash. He spent the next 2 or more minutes trying to convince me "credit cards are safer." He finally got angry and hung up on me.

That's 2 minutes he couldn't use to harass or scam someone else.

Oddly enough, this is my parents' house and they really don't have any credit cards!

Once I answered as if I was a police officer and that they had called the police station. That was a short call.

Another time I acted like I was interested in the loan they were offering but I needed something in the millions. I kept that guy busy for a while too.

I love the Youtube videos of guys really stringing the scammers out for minutes at a time.

Do you guys also do this?

[special-K]

Scammers or telemarketers? I've never gotten an attempted scam by phone. I usually turn the telemarketers down as short and sweet as possible, like one sentence that let's them know they'd be wasting their time pursuing any further. I have been know to be cocky with them, though, and waste their time. Been a long time since I've gotten any solicitations by phone. Good thing. Knock on wood!

[A1971Blazer]

If I have the time or if I'm in the mood...
I let the telemarketers go through their entire (written) speech....then I say "excuse me, someone came in the room and I was distracted....could you please repeat that?"

For the IRS scammers...the ones that tell you the police are coming to arrest you if you don't pay....I act as if I'm all scared and start giving them a fake credit card number... but I mumble the last numbers so that they cannot understand them.....after two or three times...they figure it out and hang up.

[Stocker]

We let the answering machine field our calls for awhile, but that didn't slow down the annoyance (harassment?) calls. I have also tried talking with the callers to let them know I'm not interested, never will be, please remove me from your lists. Calls kept coming. Lately we pick up when the phone rings (unless it's to our cell and we don't recognize the calling number) but I always just hang up as soon as I hear the start of a recording.

I have long maintained that if someone like the POTUS was receiving threats, the callers could be located & dealt with pronto. Catching them is doable but there's little incentive.

[RustyPile]

Originally Posted by special-K

Scammers or telemarketers? I've never gotten an attempted scam by phone. I usually turn the telemarketers down as short and sweet as possible, like one sentence that let's them know they'd be wasting their time pursuing any further. I have been know to be cocky with them, though, and waste their time. Been a long time since I've gotten any solicitations by phone. Good thing. Knock on wood!

Both my phone numbers are registered on the DO NOT CALL list.. What a joke.. That list is totally ignored by most telemarketers these days.. I get at least 5 - 10 solicitation calls everyday.. I'm over 65 and this time of year is the "window of opportunity" for signing up for Medicare and supplemental insurance coverage. Most of the calls are telemarketers wanting to sell me some insurance. I have caller ID and if I don't recognize the phone number, I never answer the call.. At my age, my time is more valuable and I don't waste it on telemarketers and scammers..

[The Rocknrod]

Using numerous phone numbers and boiler rooms, I think the phone companies are involved. How else do they get away with it?

[In The Ten Ring]

Scammers/telemarketeers? Is there a difference?

I am courteous with a telemarketeer also and even wish them well but scammers, oh gosh, those guys should be drone strike targets and it put on pay-per-view!

Just found this site....it's hilarious!

www.scammer.info

I read somewhere that right now, 60% of ALL cell phone calls are scammers. Next year that was projected to rise to 80%. I even get scam texts. Do you guys get the "Hi! It's Ann" calls? I never had student loans and I don't want health insurance (not at $6K for a deductible). "Open enrollment begins now."

[mongocanfly]

My simple plan is if I don't have the number in my phone I don't answer....I just laugh at my friends that answer every time ...then get pissed.....Don not call list is a joke...it worked for a while but I still get 10-15 class a week from numbers I don't know..

[Ol Blue K20]

I answer calls with the WASSSUP!!! bit. I've had an oops of it being my doctor or something but everyone else hangs up...lol

[LEEVON]

I get plagued with junk phone calls at my business in waves. 99% of the time I can't do anything. It pissed me off so bad because it interferes with real customers and $$$. One round kept going for weeks and I figured out I could call them back and they'd answer. So I started calling them back and then hang up. I did this on and off for an entire day. The calls stopped. I WON. Once.

[In The Ten Ring]

I know they say "don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognize" but that doesn't work if you own a business.

99.9 percent of my customers are from out-of-state. Once I got a call from a blocked number, nearly didn't answer it, did out of curiosity, and she ended up being one of the best renters ever.

[richard2717]

Anyone that knows me, knows not to call Back when I could hear I would just give the phone to one of my kids and let them talk until they got bored then they would just say bye and hang up.

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by richard2717

Anyone that knows me, knows not to call Back when I could hear I would just give the phone to one of my kids and let them talk until they got bored then they would just say bye and hang up.

OMGosh I love that!

[davischevy]

I enjoy messing with them. The other day I got one while I was at my workbench. I put him on speaker phone and worked while he asked questions. My answers were never relevant. He finally got wise and hung up.

I friend of mine asks questions about sexual orientation and underwear. Those conversations don't usually last long.

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by davischevy

I friend of mine asks questions about sexual orientation and underwear. Those conversations don't usually last long.

I once told my wife I was considering that technique. She seemed to be less than enthusiastic about the idea....

[special-K]

When I'm in a bad mood I'll ask them what they're doing calling me. I am on the no call registry and I'm going to report this number. I'm sure they know nothing will happen, even though something is supposed to. But they hang up anyway. Not exactly the tone they want to start with. A long way from there to "Yes, put me down for one"

[Coley]

...I listen to them for about 5 minutes....with occasional quiet pauses....as well as a couple other improvised background sounds....things continue on for about another minute, then I quietly go into the bathroom, flush the toilet and ask then to repeat the last part again, because I missed it.

interestingly...that usually shuts the call down right about then.

Coley

[Advanced Design]

I’ve noticed they have started to use numbers with same area code and prefix as a local call. If caller id shows a company, I typically lift the receiver and immediately hang up. Or if a telemarketing pitch starts I simply hang up immediately.

They call our land lines and cells, each on the do not call list. Very annoying...

Wish Jegs or Summit would call with screaming good deals....

[truckster]

I like to wait until I get a real human on the line...

...because my really loud whistle doesn't work on machines.

[71sierragrande]

I answer no call from a number I don't recognize. Do you know you pay a fee to talk on the phone?

[mongocanfly]

I'm like Doug...there starting using local area codes and prefixes I've been noticing...about once a week I'll go thru missed calls and google them...most all are on a scam warning list...

[Red71gmc]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

I get plagued with junk phone calls at my business in waves. 99% of the time I can't do anything. It pissed me off so bad because it interferes with real customers and $$$. One round kept going for weeks and I figured out I could call them back and they'd answer. So I started calling them back and then hang up. I did this on and off for an entire day. The calls stopped. I WON. Once.

Same here and it is really bad. Sometimes 5-6 times a day. I've read that businesses are free game and can't be put on a no call list which really ticks me off.
Usually it is recordings that say stay on the line for someone. In other words, if your gullible enough to not hang up we will pause the show on our tv and reel in the fish.
All my employees say I'm not available when it is a scammer. Some of the scammers say "are you sure he is not available?" "He told me to call him at this time". I think it should be legal to locate them and dismember them. To far???
I will try the call them back method.

I have also told some of the women they sure sound like they got a purty mouth. I bet you could really......well you know.

[mongocanfly]

Haha...always makes me think of Peggy.....https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F8L2cI8brzQ

[Boog]

I like some of the ideas I see here.
I think most Americans have cell phones now days and with the declining number of home residence land lines it became harder for solicitors to connect with you so your government made it legal for them to call you on your cell phones too. No call list probably works just the opposite.
Advertisers have the right to send you information about their goods or services either by mail or phones and we SHOULD have the right to totally block them. You get this right? The gov'ment works for big business, not the people.
At work I have to answer all calls. Or did until I got a new phone with caller ID. It helps a little.
At home I still have a land line too and it's connected to my tv so any calls to that number are displayed on the tv. If we do not recognize the number we do not answer it period. We keep the phone ringer turned down so we rarely hear it ring anyway. And what's better is we don't even have to leave our chair to go see who's calling.
And the scammers, pranksters or what ever the hell they are, are another kind of irritation altogether. On several occasions an incoming call displayed as our local fire department services division or something. I tried looking up that number and there isn't one. One time our home phone number displayed as the incoming call, to our home phone. My wife was in the laundry room at the time and I asked her how she did that. How'd I do what she said. I said how did you call our home phone on our home phone. Whaaat? I had to show her.
Oh and the annoying calls at work. Recordings every day of the week. Google this and google that, "this is a very important message DO NOT HANG UP! " I have listened to those things hoping a live person would come on the line so I could have a chance to be real rude to them but nope. Never got the chance. Press 3 if you wish to be removed from the call list. Don't work..

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by Stocker

I once told my wife I was considering that technique. She seemed to be less than enthusiastic about the idea....

Yeah, my wife didn't laugh either.